Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion New Frontiers Edition Review

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion – New Frontiers Edition is a real time strategy game, created by Ironclad Games. The game involves many different ships and the ability to conquests new planets, all in a bit to emerge the sole victor of a seemingly endless war.

To begin with, this game is beautiful. Zooming in on individual ships reveals spectacular detail, especially with the use of light and shadows to create a real depth. When travelling from planet to planet, you can time warp, and this is great fun – an awesome shower of firework-like sparks billow out behind you as you speed through space. Even the small actions, such as the firing of weapons, are visually pristine, and zooming in is always a pleasure. To really fully appreciate the beauty of a battle, turning off the interface lets you settle in and watch as ships tear into one another, in a cinematic-like display of visual splendour.

Before jumping online you really need to get comfortable with the game mechanics and learn to multi-task. It is recommended to try out the skirmishes and the campaign within the extensive tutorial first.

Rebellion is a unique mix of civilisation building and real-time battling. There are many different types of ships that you learn to command, and each has an individual feel to them, with different abilities and power against enemy ships. As well as dramatic battles with other ships, you also fight to colonise planets and asteroids that have been controlled by TEC, Vasari or Advent. These factions are known as ‘loyalists’ and ‘rebels’. Each class/faction has its own unique ability, ranging from a missile that can travel across a certain stretch of space, to an ability that allows you convince the pirates in the area to fight by your side. Each of these skills aid you in your bid to seize control of the galaxy. Colonising a planet or an asteroid allow you to strengthen your army and to gather more materials. You control a mother ship, which produces smaller ships to aid your campaign. The economy is structured by trade routes which you set up between planets, and you can negotiate using diplomacies.

Rebellion is really user-friendly towards new players. The multiplayer aspect and even the solo can take quite a long time to finish as it’s so massive, and although there are a lot of tactics involved to take down other players, the combat is very simple. Ships can auto-attack the enemy, or you can target manually. You can target a single unit, or many. Moving your own units around takes just a little getting used to, after which it is clear how simple the mechanics of the game are. The multiplayer dimensions of the game are dynamic, and invite PvP. For example, when you are building a titan ship, a timer is broadcasted to enemy players indicating when your ship’s construction will be completed. This means the enemy will bombard you in a bid to prevent your ship’s construction, and you must fight to keep the construction in progress, the result of which will be of great advantage to your team.

The story lets the game down a little. Audio certainly doesn’t seem to have received the same level of attention as other aspects of the game, with the exception of a couple of cut scenes that I actually enjoyed.

The game does boast an impressive range of skill trees, from ‘civilian’ to ‘military’, which allows you to tailor the strength of certain ships to better suit your particular needs in battles or conquests. On Diplomacy trees, the skills you select are shared amongst the members in your team, which is something I have never personally experienced in a game and it has really struck a chord with me.

Conclusion

Sins of Solar Empire: Rebellion is a great strategy game that brings more to the table than just building units and killing the opposing team. This expansion is great for new players that want to try out this game, with all its helpful tutorials and skirmishes that you can practice on. The visual effects are really nicely done, from the sheer level of intricate detail on the ships to the visual effects of the abilities and weapon fire. Despite an under-developed story-line and some disappointing sound effects, Rebellion is a strong contendor in its genre.